March 31, 2015

The GODMODE compilation, American Music, is out now and features new tracks from Shamir, Yvette, Courtship Ritual, Motion Studies, Excepter and more. The whole thing is pretty good and you can stream it in full below.

Yvette, whose contribution to the comp, "I Don't Need Anything from Anybody," is a skullcrusher, will play Baby's All Right on April 24 with Eaters, Dan Friel and Natalie Jones. All the bands will be debuting new material at the show and tickets are on sale now. American Music also contains a song by Fissures which is Yvette drummer Dale Eisenger's electronic-leaning solo project.

Soft Lit (Tyler from Motion Studies and Tara Chacon) and Fasano (former ARMS member Matthew Fasano), who both have songs on the comp, play Union Pool on April 18 with Scam Avenue. Fasano is also DJing with Fitness (also on this comp) and The Flag at 603 Upstairs on April 17. He's got a few other local shows coming up and those are listed below as well.

Long-running, genre-crossing Norwegian band Jaga Jazzist are releasing a new album titled Starfire on June 2 via Ninja Tune. The title track is out now, and it's a jammy, proggy, synthy epic that covers a lot of ground in its nearly 9-minute running time. Listen below.

The band, whose leader/composer Lars Horntveth recently relocated to LA, will also go on a North American tour this June in support of the album. The tour brings them to NYC on June 20 at Webster Hall. Tickets for that show go on sale Friday (4/3) at 10 AM.

The tour has them in NYC a night before the Perfect Pussy show to play a smaller gig at Baby's sister venue Elvis Guesthouse on Thursday (4/2). That starts at 10 PM and is totally free. All dates are listed below.

Brooklyn's Jerry Paper (aka Lucas Nathan) could almost have come straight of the Tim & Eric screen: defiantly weird, part hotel lounge act/Harry Nilsson/Brian Wilson with a little laptop R&B, and yet oddly appealing. (So Ariel Pink-ish? Kinda but not really.) His new album, Carousel, just came out today (3/31) via Bayonet and you can check out the strange album trailer and an Rdio stream of the whole album, below.

Jerry will be celebrating Carousel's released on Wednesday (4/1) at Silent Barn with Helado Negro, Trabajo, and Macula Dog. If you've never seen Jerry live, well, like his records, it's a little different. Tickets are on sale.

Jerry will also play the Bayonet Records Northside showcase at Rough Trade on June 12 with Frankie Cosmos, Warehouse and headliners Beach Fossils. Tickets for that show go on sale Friday (4/3) at noon.

Sax-driven political punk party Downtown Boys signed to Don Giovanni last year, and since announced that the label will put out their debut album, Full Communisim, on May 4. So far two of the tracks have been released, "Future Police" and "Monstro." Check out both below.

Downtown Boys are also going on tour, and playing a record release show in NYC on May 15 at Palisades with In School (ex-Household) and The Homewreckers. Tickets for that show are on sale now.

NYC's "festival of noise and abstract liberation" Ende Tymes Festival was recently announced to return this year from May 13-17 at Knockdown Center, Silent Barn and Outpost Artists Resources, and you can now check out the full schedule with daily lineups and set times. The fest includes Z'EV, Metalux, Dead Machines, Pharmakon, Lary 7, Gen Ken Montgomery, Chris Goudreau (of Sickness), David Lee Myers, Thomas Dimuzio, Bastard Noise, C. Spencer Yeh, Marcia Bassett & Samara Lubelski and many more.

Detroit's Moonwalks are going on a short US tour this April which begins with two NYC shows. First they play Silent Barn on April 7 with Worthless, Infinity Girl and Painted Zeros ($8 at door); and then they play Mercury Lounge on April 8 with Spires and Uh Bones (tickets). All dates are listed below.

The band recently made a video for their garage-psych single "Sheik" off their 2014 EP. It was directed by Kristin Adamczyk. You can check it out below...

"I'm so happy I can't believe it!" Jazz, one of Mourn's two singer/guitarists, was clearly excited to be playing her first-ever NYC shows. She then unironically introduced the next number, "This song's called 'Misery Factory'!" It was a very funny, if unintentionally so, moment at the young Barcelona band's second NYC show. (Mourn made their US debut on Sunday.) While their stage demeanor tipped their age (15-18), their PJ Harvey/Hole brand of indie rock sounded confident -- their debut album is good -- with enthusiasm in spades.

It's almost a shame that Mourn's show couldn't have been part of Monday night's late show at Mercury Lounge -- they would've fit right in with Swervedriver, sonically at least. Mourn play Boston tonight (3/31) and then head to the West Coast for a couple California shows.

Laced, which features Dustin from Beach Fossils and Ryan from Nude Beach, opened the show. I got there, unfortunately, right as they said "thank you and good night" but our photographer was on time and caught them. Pictures of both bands continue, including one of Mourn's setlist, below...

Outside Lands, which happens August 7-9 in San Francisco with Elton John, Mumford & Sons, The Black Keys, Kendrick Lamar, Wilco, D'Angelo, St. VIncent and more, announced its daily lineups today. Check those out below.

Veteran UK shoegaze outfit Swervedriver are in the midst of their three NYC show run which, in turn, is part of their tour supporting their first album since the '90s. They played the late show at Mercury Lounge last night (3/30) which got off to a bit of a late start for them (11:20 or so), especially for a Monday, but the crowd stayed there till they finished around 1 AM. The band, which on this tour includes Mick Quinn of Supergrass on bass, sounded good though frontman Adam Franklin admitted they hadn't bothered with a soundcheck.

The set features all but one song from the very good I Wasn't Born to Lose You, which fit right in with old favorites like "Never Lose That Feeling," "Son of a Mustang Ford" and "Rave Down." Like 1998's 99th Dream, it's a pretty mellow affair and the set could've used a few more of their early burners, especially given the hour, and I would've liked more from 1995's underrated Ejector Seat Reservation (we only got "The Birds") but very good show all the same.

The Mercury Lounge show, like the whole tour, was opened by LA's Gateway Drugs who make psych in the post-VU, BJM style. Not bad -- their drummer was great and they finished strong with a cover of The Count Five's "Psychotic Reaction." Pictures of both bands from the Merc show are in this post.

Swervedriver's NYC run (which included Music Hall of Williamsburg on Friday) wraps up tonight (3/31) at Saint Vitus. Tickets are still available.

You can also check out pics from Swervedriver's set at BrooklynVegan's SXSW day party here and here. More pics from Mercury Lounge, and their setlist, below...